Comfort

There are many places we can find comfort when we are hurting, when we are grieving. It seems that in times of loss and grief, we find comfort most powerfully through our senses. Through the warm hug of a friend, the taste of a meal prepared with love, the beauty of a walk outdoors, the familiar chords of a beloved hymn. Something about these experiences touches us in a place words cannot.


I know this is true, and not just because I have observed it or learned it academically. I am grieving right now, in the process of saying goodbye to someone I love very, very much. So, in lieu of more academic, devotional, or clinical thoughts, I want to share with you a song that is bringing me comfort right now. It brings comfort not only through its warmth and familiarity, but through the truth it speaks to my heart.  May it bring comfort and peace to you as well.

The Old Rugged Cross

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross
The emblem of suffering and shame
How I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown

O that old rugged cross, so despised by the world
Has a wondrous attraction for me
For the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
To bear it to dark Calvary

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown

Then He'll call me some day to my home far away
Where His glory forever I'll share

So I'll cherish the old rugged cross
Till my trophies at last I lay down
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown
I will cling to the old rugged cross
And exchange it some day for a crown